User:Novellasyes/sandbox/Coral Thiell RFC

Wikipedia:Requests for comment

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Text for talk page:

RfC on Coral Thiell

( an RFC tag goes here )

Background:

• Coral Thiell was a member of People of Praise (POP) several decades ago. She was also married to a man who was part of POP.
• Amy Coney Barrett (ACB) is a member of POP. In the wake of her nomination to SCOTUS, attention focused on many aspects of ACB's background, including POP.
• Former POP member Coral Thiell believes that POP is a cult. A robust handful of mainstream media organizations, following ACB's nomination, reported on Coral Thiell's negative experiences with POP and her belief that it is a cult. These media organizations include the Washington Post on September 28, Raw Story and Reuters.
• Extensive dialogue has occurred on the talk page of the "People of Praise" article on Wikipedia. Initially, the conversation was about whether to mention Coral Thiell's allegations at all. This was eventually resolved in a consensus to include the material in the article.
• Then, the Washington Free Beacon, which is a conservative/activist publication, and which also has a reporting staff, published two articles going into a number of details about Coral Thiell that the mainstream media organizations did not go into. ( Here and here. ) Their reporting, which links to primary documents, describes Thiell as having "a track record of hyper-partisan online posting, farfetched lawsuits, and fantastic grievance peddling that casts doubt on her credibility." They note that her ex-husband -- the man who was her husband when they were both in the POP group -- successfully sued her for defamation in 2014.
• User:PerpetuaGalway asked on the "People of Praise" talk page to have the material from the Washington Free Beacon included in the article.
• Dialogue ensued on the "People of Praise" talk page and a consensus has not been reached.
• The dialogue raises interesting questions that go beyond just this one situation. Those include:

• How to handle situations where one (less prestigious) media organizations mention facts that are not mentioned in significantly more, and significantly more prestigious, publications. (Let's assume for the sake of hypothesis that the facts mentioned by the less-favored, lonely publication are true.)
• How to handle situations where a robust handful of media organizations talk about the concerns of a disgruntled former member of an organization. The disgruntled former member is not independently notable, but the organization is independently notable.

This is what the article currently says:

"Coral Anika Theill was a member of People of Praise for five years during the 1970s and 1980s. In the wake of Amy Coney Barrett's 2020 nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, Theill spoke to a number of media outlets about her experience with the religious community. Theill alleged that during her time in the group's branch in Corvallis, Oregon, women were expected to endure complete submission to the group's men. According to The Washington Post, Theill said her time in People of Praise "may have been atypical and extreme and that there may be regional differences." Theill argues, "Many call [the group] a community but I describe it as a cult." A spokesperson for People of Praise denied Theill's allegations, saying "men and women share a fundamental equality as bearers of God's image" and "We value independent thinking."

Here are the options that various editors have suggested:

Option 1: Don't have anything about Coral Thiell's allegations in the article at all. Note: This would involve removing a paragraph that is currently in the article and it would leave People of Praise#Reception with three other paragraphs with three other evaluations of the group.

Option 2: Mention Coral Thiell's allegations about POP being a cult. Do not mention information (published in the Washington Free Beacon) that could be taken to undermine her credibility.

Option 2 is what is currently in the article.

Option 2(a): Mention that a former member has alleged that POP is a cult, but do not use Coral Thiell's name. Do not mention information (published in the Washington Free Beacon) that could be taken to undermine her credibility.

Option 3: Mention Coral Thiell's allegations about POP being a cult. Include additional information about Coral Thiell's history of allegations against others, which were heard by official bodies and found wanting, and the fact that her ex-husband won a defamation lawsuit against her.

Here's what that could look like:

"Coral Anika Theill was a member of People of Praise for five years during the 1970s and 1980s. In the wake of Amy Coney Barrett's 2020 nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, Theill spoke to a number of media outlets about her experience with the religious community. Theill alleged that during her time in the group's branch in Corvallis, Oregon, women were expected to endure complete submission to the group's men. According to The Washington Post, Theill said her time in People of Praise "may have been atypical and extreme and that there may be regional differences." Theill argues, "Many call [the group] a community but I describe it as a cult." A spokesperson for People of Praise denied Theill's allegations, saying "men and women share a fundamental equality as bearers of God's image" and "We value independent thinking." The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative digital publication, said that Theill "has a track record of hyper-partisan online posting, farfetched lawsuits, and fantastic grievance peddling that casts doubt on her credibility." The publication linked to documents about Theill's accusations of her children, her parents, her therapists, and her attorneys as well as to a variety of unsuccessful lawsuits Theill has filed over the years, as well as noting that her ex-husband obtained a defamation judgment against Thiell in 2014.

Option 4: Create an article on WP about Coral Thiell that includes lots of information and context about her, on the theory that if someone is important enough to have the fact that they are calling the subject of an article a cult included in the article about that organization, then they are important enough to have an article about them.

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